In 2017, the Archive moved to the Admiralty Boathouse at 23 The Strand, Newlyn due to the generosity of the Newlyn Harbour Commissioners. It is open to visitors Tuesday-Friday 9.30-12.00 each week (except for public holidays) and it is also open for special events as advertised.

Here is Ken Howard’s painting of the Newlyn Post Office. Ken has given us permission to use this to promote the Archive. The Boathouse was built in 1900 for the Admiralty as a Coastguards Boathouse and became a Post Office in 1925 until it closed in 2016.

The Archive contains material about Newlyn, Lamorna and West Country Art. The purpose of the archive is to preserve, store and share stories, documents, pictures and audio material relating to these collections from distant times until today.

It was hard work moving the archive holdings into the Boathouse and this picture shows some of the team carrying the material through the door.

Friends of the Newlyn Archive pay a £5 annual subscription or become a life friend for £100. They are actively involved in developing the Newlyn Archive by participating in events, adding to the archive resources, or taking responsibility for research areas in the archive. By November 2017, 378 people had become friends of the Newlyn Archive.

Here was a special occasion in the early days of the Boathouse when Friend of the Archive Frank Iddiols placed a historic Newlyn Benchmark inside its front door.

Friends of the Archive annually elect a committee of volunteers to manage the archive that includes a chairman, treasurer, secretary, six ordinary committee members, and five co-opted members. The archivist is an ex officio member of the committee.

Here Archive Secretary Sean Perrott talks to helper Dave Barron and Life Friend of the Archive Maurice Bishop while two visitors search for material on their family history. Everything is listed in the Archive Catalogue. This picture was taken in the Boathouse before the delivery of a new table and chairs.

lyn with his wife Harriet.

A wide range of people including young people are involved in archive projects, both learning from and contributing to their community archive.

Here two children from Newlyn School look at one of the display panels prepared for the visit of their school class to the Boathouse as part of its inauguration programme.

There is a programme of annual Open Days, held at Trinity Centre with free admission, which focus on a chosen theme and enable people to enjoy and learn from the archive holdings.

Here two visitors to the Open Day ‘Newlyn in Uniform’, October 2017 look at the dress worn by members of the Newlyn Male Choir. The Open Days are popular events and the total number of visitors for the 4 Open Days of 2017 was 462!

Each Open Day presents a unique collection of archive material that has been arranged around a theme. People come to learn about and enjoy their local heritage and many find that they can contribute positively to the information that is held.

Here at an Open Day, assistant archivist Brian Newton shows a short film ‘Boathouse Diary’ made by Shauna Osborne-Dowle. In the film Newlyn Archive members tell the story of the Boathouse, it’s history, it’s former use as a post office and of the changes which have made the Archive what it is today, an easily accessible, cultural facility and community hub.

The archive is a voluntary organisation with charitable status that relies on the generosity of its Friends and the fund-raising skills of its committee. Every two years we publish a book based on the archive holdings and the money from its sale helps the archive to achieve its aims.

Here editors Pam Lomax and Linda Holmes have been photographed by Christopher Laughton at the launch of the new book ‘The Story of Newlyn Harbour’ published by the archive in 2017.

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The dark green wooden shop located in the centre of Newlyn close to the War Memorial is no longer in existence. On Monday 5 February 2018 the demolition men arrived and by late afternoon on 7 February 2018 David Barron’s shop had disappeared.

Generations of Newlyners bought their sweets, cigarettes, magazines, papers and much more from the shop for as long as almost anyone can remember. The shop was set up by David’s father, Jonce Barron, in 1920 and David took over from him for a few days when his father was ill. Fifty odd years later the shop was finally closed.

During the Second World War the Navy developed a new technology to find enemy submarines underwater. This was called ‘ASDIC’, and was based on the understanding that sound signals could be transmitted into the water and any echo would be heard if the sound wave hit a solid enough target. The echo could be detected by a hydrophone and displayed on a suitable display screen, showing distance from sound source to sound echo and also the direction that the sound source was sent away.

The collage above celebrates the final opening of the Boathouse in 2017, when Friends of the Archive provided light refreshments for visitors and there was some mulled wine on hand. We were closed for a Christmas break from 22nd December until 2nd January but are now in full swing again.